Devin Ashby is back and raring to go
Fresh-faced 31 year old Cape lightweight jockey Devin Ashby has just returned from a very successful seven month stint booting home the winners on the beautiful Pacific island of New Caledonia. He says that the experience raised his race riding and personal confidence levels a good few notches, and has given him a new outlook on his profession.
Devin qualified from the South African Jockey Academy in December 2009 and has had his fair share of winners for trainers such as Glen Puller, Ricky Maingard, Harold Crawford and Andries Steyn.
And just in case you are wondering, New Caledonia is located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 1210 km east of Australia.
The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets.
Devin, who flew into Cape Town, just last week declared himself happy to be home, but thrilled at the ‘experience of a lifetime.’
“Wow! What a beautiful island just 3 hours from Australia with great racing, abundant equine activities, magnificent beaches and a host of fantastic cultural experiences. I made many new friends of different cultures, including Spanish, French, Mauritian, New Zealanders and Australians,” he said excitedly.
Devin was assigned to a racing yard for the period of 7 months whilst being able to ride for other trainers on race day when he was available.
“I travelled around the island and rode at all four racecourses several times. I was blessed with my successes having an 85% earnings strike rate at the end of my season and riding several winners, including a Gr2 win on a New Zealand filly called Play The Vibe in The Noumea Cup run over 2400m.”
Devin says Christian Kaouma, the trainer to whom he was attached, conditioned his horses very differently to South African trainers.
“They do interval training which is judged on the clock on harder surfaces. They also gallop their horses more frequently and focus on stamina training by swimming at the local beach.”
On the actual racing, he said that the pace was faster, the going was harder and the results of many races were true to exposed form.
“The jockeys ride to the pure strength, speed and stamina of the horse beneath them as opposed to excessive game planning and strategies. The Stipendiary Stewards are very strict on enforcing the race rules with regard to excessive use of the crop and clean riding.”
On comparisons with the lifestyle that he is used to in South Africa, Devin said that it was quite different.
“As an example, the cost of living on the island is very high as most things are imported but the residents are much more self -sufficient with regards to fishing, hunting and the subsistence growing of exotic fruits and vegetables. There wasn’t a single incident of crime that I heard of or read about in the papers with the locals being friendly, very helpful and close to one another.”
Devin wins the Gr2 on NZ filly Play The Vibe
In a romantic twist, Devin recently got engaged to Stacey Reeves, his girlfriend of five years on one of the island’s private beaches. He plans to get married in March.
He is determined to build on the revitalising boost from the experience of his stint on New Caledonia and he is planning to make a determined effort to increase his race-riding opportunities here.
“I want to aim to get more riding opportunities in PE, Zimbabwe and Durban as I would like to race in as many centres as I can to maintain my confidence, strength and improve my experience.”
Devin goes to scale at 52,5kgs and is freelancing at the moment.
He is keen to engage an agent and also invited trainers to contact him on [email protected].
